Tuesday, September 26, 2017

An international footballer turned entrepreneur will be in the region next month to kick off a free event highlighting the importance of mentoring in business.

In his fourteen year career, Danny Mills won the League Cup with Middlesbrough, earned 19 caps for his country and played for four Premier League clubs including Leeds United and Manchester City.

Outside of football, the former right back has built and maintained a commercial and residential property portfolio and following his retirement from the game, Danny has continued to develop his business interests, successfully turning around the West Cornwall Pasty Co and sold Deeside print from Excelsior Technologies for £33m earlier this year.

Mills will speak at a special event hosted by Launchpad Mentoring; a Sheffield city region wide programme which matches new entrepreneurs with experienced business owners. The event is designed to encourage business owners to pledge their support and sign up to become a Launchpad mentor, to pass their skills and knowledge to new entrepreneurs to help them achieve their full potential.

Now an investor and member of the advisory board at Enact, a turnaround business fund which is part of Endless LLP in Leeds, Danny will share the story of his dramatic change of direction from football to business as well as providing tips and tools to promote business growth and explaining how the role of mentors has helped to shape his own business journey.

Advertisement

The Launchpad programme is a £4m, three year, part-ERDF funded programme and the event on October 25 forms part of Launchpad Mentoring Month and is just one of a series of workshops and activities.

Irshad Akbar, business mentoring manager at Launchpad, said: "Many individuals who start a business need support from someone who has been there and done it and working with a mentor can offer insight and experience along the way. The Launchpad Mentoring programme was established to connect new entrepreneurs with existing business owners who are keen to see others in the Sheffield City Region succeed.

"We are looking forward to welcoming Danny Mills as our guest of honour. Although he is perhaps best known for his exploits and success on the pitch, since retiring from the beautiful game Danny has established himself as a highly successful business owner and during the event he will be sharing anecdotes from his playing days, as well as offering tips on how to succeed in business.

"This special event, which forms part of a month dedicated to mentoring, highlights and celebrates the work undertaken as a result of mentoring whilst encouraging new entrepreneurs and business owners to take advantage of the free support available through the Launchpad programme."

Danny Mills, investor at Enact (pictured), added: "I have always had an interest in business and alongside my football career I created a successful commercial and residential property portfolio. After retiring from professional football I wanted to put my business skills and knowledge to further use and joined forces with the partners at private equity turnaround specialist Endless LLP to form Enact, creating an investment fund aimed at helping distressed SME businesses get back to success.

"I am honoured to be speaking at the Launchpad Mentoring event, which I hope will help aspiring and existing business owners within the Sheffield city region to find out more about the help and support which is readily available on their doorstep."

The event, at The Hide in Sheffield, is free for entrepreneurs and business owners within the city region who will need to register here.